Cisco Champion Radio

Description:
The prevailing belief in artificial intelligence is that bigger models always equal better intelligence. But when it comes to high-stakes, specialized tasks like vulnerability discovery and code security, purpose-built models are rewriting the playbook.

In this episode of Cisco Champion Radio, our panel sits down with the engineering minds behind Antares-Cisco's specialized AI model designed to navigate real-world software repositories and pinpoint vulnerabilities with surgical precision. We explore how a compact, highly tailored model can rival and outperform massive frontier models on specialized domain tasks.

🔍 In This Episode, We Cover:

Meet Antares: What Antares is, the critical problem it solves in the modern DevSecOps pipeline, and where it fits within the automated vulnerability discovery lifecycle.

Specialization Over Scale: How the team engineered a small, efficient model to deliver world-class performance without the massive compute overhead of generalized frontier models.

The Engineering Blueprint: The role of curated training datasets, advanced post-training, reinforcement learning (RL), and autonomous tool use in enabling agents to navigate complex codebases.

Lessons from the Trenches: What worked, what failed, and how the team's methodology evolved through rapid experimentation.

Introducing VLocBench: Why existing industry benchmarks fell short, what realistic vulnerability localization actually requires, and how VLocBench establishes a new standard for evaluating code security models.

The Future of Specialized AI: What the success of Antares signals for the broader AI landscape, and where task-specific models will beat general-purpose LLMs in enterprise engineering.

Whether you're a security researcher, software architect, or AI practitioner, this episode offers a deep technical look at the future of agentic security.

Cisco guests
Supriti VIjay, AI Research Scientist, Foundation AI
Aman Priyanshu, AI Researcher Scientist, Foundation AI

Cisco Champion Hosts
Liam Keegan, VP of Technology, RX3 Communications, Inc.
Rickey Keith, Vertical Systems Engineer, WWT
Girard Kavelines, Network Security Engineer, Aqueduct Technologies

Moderator
Danielle Carter, Cisco, CCR Program/ Customer Voices

Explore how AI is reshaping the telecom landscape, moving from centralized training to distributed inference to meet the demand for low-latency, secure network services. We discuss how service providers can leverage Cisco infrastructure to unlock new revenue streams and transition toward outcome-based business models. Learn why observability and robust security are essential for managing these complex, increasingly upload-centric networks.

Cisco guest
Matt Price, VP Engineering, Cisco Provider Mobility 

Cisco Champion Hosts
Kelvin Brooks, Network Engineer, REV Fiber
Alan Gardner, CEO, Current Technologies Computer Learning Center
Jonathan Mahady,  Principal Engineer, BHP

Moderator
Danielle Carter, Cisco, CCR Program/ Customer Voices

AI workloads are pushing traditional network fabrics to their limits, often turning fragmented operational silos into significant bottlenecks. In this episode of Cisco Champion Radio, we move beyond the standard GPU-centric discourse to focus on the underlying architecture that determines whether your AI investments deliver real-world value.

We are joined by Cisco experts Vimala and Sai to unpack the requirements for a truly unified AI infrastructure. If your network fabric is fragmented, or if your Kubernetes and networking teams are operating from disparate sources of truth, performance and security will inevitably lag the speed of your AI models.

Key Topics Covered:

The Unified Operating Model: We explore the Nexus One model and how it bridges the gap between on-premises data centers and cloud-native Kubernetes environments, creating a single source of truth for infrastructure and policy.

AgenticOps and Cloud Control: Moving past basic automation, we discuss the role of AgenticOps and multi-agent architectures. Learn how Cisco’s cloud control provides the deep observability required to troubleshoot from the switch port to the GPU.

Modern Data Center Security: As AI environments scale, so must your defense. We examine how Cisco’s involvement in Anthropic’s Project Glasswing and the use of the Mythos model are accelerating the discovery of zero-day and latent threats. We also break down the strategic implementation of Quantum-safe PQC and Live Protect to ensure infrastructure resilience against evolving cyber threats.

Silicon Strategy for Scalable Systems: Raw bandwidth is only one piece of the puzzle. We dive into the technical realities of handling AI microbursts—focusing on deep buffering, deterministic low latency, and the strategic hardware innovations behind Cisco Silicon One and Cloud Scale platforms.

Practical Tactics for Infrastructure Leaders: This conversation focuses on eliminating bottlenecks, bridging physical and cloud-native environments, and preparing for the next wave of infrastructure demands without the marketing fluff.

Whether you are an infrastructure lead, a cloud architect, or a data center strategist, this episode provides the technical blueprint needed to build an AI-ready foundation that is fast, observable, and secure.

Cisco guests
Vimala Veerappan, Sr Director, Cisco
Sai Natarajan, Sr. Director, Cisco

Cisco Champion Hosts
Michael Witte, Principal Solutions Architect, World Wide Technology
Nathan Litz, Technical Solutions Architect, World Wide Technology

In this episode of Cisco Champion Radio, we discuss the latest updates to the CCNP security certification, highlighting the integration of modern topics like Zero Trust and AI to address the evolving cybersecurity landscape. We also explore how resources like Cisco U and practical tools such as Cisco Modeling Labs empower professionals to bridge the cybersecurity skills gap and maximize their security technology investments.

Resources:
LWC: https://learnwith.cisco.com/30-day-challenge.html?utm_campaign=fy27-cs-challenge&utm_source=web&utm_medium=champions
SCOR LP: https://blogs.cisco.com/learning/cisco-security-certification-updates-your-questions-answered
CCNP FAQ blog: https://blogs.cisco.com/learning/cisco-security-certification-updates-your-questions-answered
SCOR LP: https://u.cisco.com/paths/implementing-operating-cisco-security-core-technologies-21906?utm_campaign=fy27-cs-awareness&utm_source=web&utm_medium=champions

Cisco guests
Kyle Winters, Senior Technical Advocate, Cisco
Francois Caen, Technical Product Manager, Cisco

Cisco Champion Hosts
Rickey Keith, Vertical Systems Engineer, WWT
Richard Cordan, Cyber Range Master, TD SYNNEX

Moderator
Danielle Carter, Cisco, CCR Program/ Customer Voices

Speakers: Jack Klecha, VP, Information Security, Security & Trust Organization and Jon Woolwine, VP, Cisco IT

Description:
Join Cisco IT and security leaders John Woolwine and Jack Klecha for an in-depth conversation about why network infrastructure has become the biggest target in today's threat landscape, and how Cisco's IT and security teams partnered to implement a layered, integrated approach that fuses security directly into the network fabric — from campus and branch to data center and cloud.

Key topics covered:
-The network as the ultimate prize: Why attackers have shifted their focus from endpoints to the network, and why the network must now serve as our most critical line of defense.
-Our layered, integrated approach: Moving beyond "bolting on" tools to a unified fabric that integrates security from the campus and branch to the data center and cloud.
-Treating security as a team sport: How Cisco IT and Security align on shared visibility, planning, and goals to strengthen operations and resilience.
-Best practices: Strategies for building a resilient, secure infrastructure and achieving measurable security outcomes.